Matters of the Heart
by BabyKay47
Summary: There aren't any lengths to which George will not go for his brother, including matters of the heart.
1. Chapter 1

George couldn't believe he was actually standing in front of Angelina's door. How many times had he imagined getting up the nerve to go up to her and tell her how he felt? But he never had the guts. He still didn't. The only reason he was there was because Fred had asked him to. He knew there wasn't anything George wouldn't do for Fred.

He was welcomed with a slap.

"You were with that bitch Romilda Vane, weren't you?" followed the slap. Angelina was clearly infuriated.

"I was not!" Georgia exclaimed, defending his own honor even if he couldn't rightly defend his brother's.

"You've made me a laughing stock," Angelina cried out, and quick as lightning she pulled out her wand and had aimed it at George. "Stupi-"

"Expelliarmus!" George quickly disarmed her, catching her wand in his other hand as it slid through the air.

This only seemed to irritate her more, and she launched herself at him, tackling him to the ground. She pummeled him, and he struggled to restrain her without hurting her. Eventually he found himself on top of her, his arms wrapped around her body, his legs clamped around her like a vice as she struggled against him.

"Get off me, you bastard!" she cried, tears of frustration rolling down her face.

"I will if you promise not to try to scratch my eyes out again."

She stopped struggling against him, silent tears streaming down. George slowly extracted himself from on top of her. He helped her to get up. "I'm sorry if I was a little rough," he said, noticing that her clothes were in disarray.

"I'm sorry I thought you were Fred," Angelina finally said after a long pause.

George was stunned. Not many of Fred's girlfriends could tell the difference. Hell, even his own mother couldn't always tell.

"Do you always try to appease Fred's angry girlfriends on his behalf?" Angelina asked, breaking George's train of thought.

"How did you-?"

"Know?" Angelina cut him off. "You won't look me in the eyes. You always seemed a little shy around me ever since your brother and I started going out."

George felt disconcerted. He didn't think that Angelina even noticed that every time he saw her, a piece of his heart died a little inside.

"Why do you do it?" she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"I suppose it's because he's my brother."

"That's not a reason."

"It is what it is. If I didn't run interference my brother would be dead by now and our mother would have _my _head for it."

"Do you normally pretend to be Fred?"

"I wasn't pretending to be Fred!"

"You have before." Angelina leaned in closer to George. So close that their breaths mingled and her long straightened black hair brushed against his chest. George began to feel uncomfortable again.

"I know your secret," she whispered. "I know that you swap places with your brother not only to annoy your family and your teachers. You like to share women, too."

"We do not!"

"Then why did you kiss me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" But he did. Of course he did.

It had been a night similar to this one. Fred had a date with some girl, and in the heat of the moment he'd forgotten he had already made a date with Angelina. But what did it matter? That's what having a twin was for. So he had begged George to go to Angelina and apologize, just like he was doing now, only Angelina had been intoxicated. And he hadn't meant to be Fred. (It was one of the only times that he was afraid to be mistaken.) But she had been out celebrating with the girls, and was so happy to see him that he didn't have the heart to tell her he wasn't Fred. And then she kissed him and it was everything he had hoped it would be. Her lips had been soft and pliant and she tasted like firewhiskey and heat. It was everything he had dreamed of. Except he wasn't Fred.

He thought that she had forgotten about that kiss. Afterwards, she demanded that they cuddle on the sofa and then she promptly fell asleep. But apparently she hadn't.

"Liar!" She lifted her hand to hit him again, but he captured her wrist.

"I thought you promised not to be violent anymore!"

"I can't help it! Liars make me want to do violent things!" she glared daggers at him and he met her gaze defensively.

"I'm not lying when I say we don't 'share' women. I wouldn't do it to my brother and I certainly wouldn't do it to some poor unsuspecting girl."

"But do you deny that you kissed me?"

"How did you know?"

"You left the toilet seat up."

"Huh?" George asked, nonplussed.

Angelina rolled her eyes and began to explain. "Fred sent me an owl apologizing for not showing up. At first I was confused because I clearly remembered kissing someone, and I figured the kissing couldn't have been a dream because even as pissed as I was, I never would have left the toilet seat up. So I put two and two together and realized it must have been you."

"Are you saying that you would have imagined that my coming over and kissing you might have all been a dream, if I had only remembered not to leave the toilet seat up?"

Angelina smirked. "You boys never learn. Women are very observant, especially about things like that. That and you forgot to mention to Fred that you didn't apologize on his behalf, and instead pretended to be him to get a kiss out of me."

George was immediately defensive. "You make it sound so sleazy. I couldn't tell Fred about that night because I didn't mean to kiss you. And it was me," he admitted. "I did kiss you. But-" he continued before she could protest, "I didn't 'share' you. It just sort of happened."

"How do you just 'sort of' stick your tongue down someone's throat?"

"You remember there was tongue?" George asked, incredulously.

"Please stick to the issue at hand here. How do you call kissing your brother's girlfriend not sharing women?"

"'Women' is plural. As in more than one person. You're the only girlfriend of Fred's that I've kissed!"

"Somehow that's not reassuring. Why me?"

_Because I've been in love with you since third year. Because I hate that my brother got to you first and I there was a part of me that was so jealous that I didn't care if it hurt him if he ever found out, which he never will. Because I think you're the funniest, smartest, bravest, most beautiful girl I've ever known, and if you were my girlfriend I'd never ask my brother to cover for me while I snogged some other girl, _he thought. But all he said was, "Because you were drunk," he answered lamely.

"Were you drunk, too? Because that only explains why I was so out of it I didn't notice that you were you. Not Fred. That still doesn't explain why you kissed me back."

George pressed his lips together in a firm line and refused to speak for fear that the awful truth would come out.

"Was it because you wanted to? Was it because you are in love with me?"

George's eyes widened in surprise and he started to shake his head, his mouth open to refute her claim, but no sound came out.

"It's okay, George. Just be honest with me. Are you in love with me?"

* * *

**A/N: **I was on a George/Angelina kick, so I decided to finally post this thing that I've been hanging on to for a while. This is my first (and probably only) foray into the HP fandom, so please be kind. Of course, I don't expect much feedback because this is a pairing that probably on 1% of the fandom even likes, but please read and review! There's one more part, so stay tuned.


	2. Chapter 2

George was a consummate liar. He couldn't have gotten away with as many pranks as he had if he wasn't. He instinctively started to deny her words. He? In love with Angelina? His brother's girlfriend? But he could feel a betraying blush begin to creep up his neck. He was sure that it was the same color as his hair, and he could see the exact moment when Angelina began to realize the truth.

"How…? How long?" she sputtered.

"Not long," he lied. Maybe his truth could hide his lie for the moment.

"Does Fred know?" she asked.

Somehow, he had managed to keep this fact a secret from his twin. He never wanted Fred to feel that he had stolen something from him, even though he felt in some way that Fred had stolen something from him. And even though he loved Angelina, he loved his brother more. "He doesn't know." At least he thought Fred didn't know. It had sometimes been quite difficult to keep his feelings hidden, and he wondered if Fred might have cottoned on. But if he had, he had never said anything.

"So you're saying you're in love with me, but it's completely fine with you that your brother is cheating on me?"

"I don't think he thinks of it as cheating on you... "

"Then what is it?"

"Not being completely monogamous?" George replied lamely. But he still tried to defend his brother. "Despite the way he may seem, my brother is a mass of insecurities, and he always wonders if the grass is greener on the other side. He loves you, I'm sure he does, but I think he's afraid that he's not good enough and he needs to be sure that he is—"

"Wait! Let me stop you there. Are you trying to say that Fred is justified in cheating on me because he's afraid he'll lose me? So instead of trying to be a man that _is_ worthy of me by _not_ cheating, he needs to find someone else that he can be with in case we break up? "

"Well... "

"That's complete bullshit, and the fact that you can stand there and try to tell me otherwise makes me think that you're not really in love with me either."

The idea that Angelina could believe that she wasn't loved totally and completely by him, or his brother, devastated George. "That's not true, Angelina. I love you!" There he had said it. And he had managed not to choke. He actually began to feel a bit freer, as if a heavy load had been lifted from his chest. "Of course I love you! But how could I tell you when I thought that you wanted my brother? All I've ever wanted was for you to be happy. When Fred asked you out to the Yule Ball and you said yes, I realized that I wasn't the one who could make you happy. "

"But I'm not happy. Fred is making me absolutely miserable and you're just standing by watching! How can you?" She emphasized it with a punch, and then she started repeating the phrase, pummeling him over and over again. This time he didn't try to stop her; he just accepted his punishment as his due. If he hadn't been such a coward, if he wasn't so stubbornly loyal to his brother...she wouldn't be going through all this pain.

But then she was kissing him. And she knew it was him this time and not his brother, and he felt a burst of hope spark inside him as he kissed her back, burying his hands in her hair and kissing her with all the desperation and longing he had felt for her all these years.

Then suddenly she pulled away and he felt his heart plunge into his stomach.

"This is madness! I can't do this—I can't just switch you out like I bought the wrong size shoes. You deserve better than this. He deserves better than this. _I _deserve better than this. Even though you may look identical, you are _not_ Fred. "

George felt as if he had just been kicked in the teeth. Once again, he was faced with the fact that the girl he loved was in love with his brother. Despite everything, she wanted Fred. Not him. "Sorry, Angelina," he croaked. "I'm so sorry." He found himself slowly getting up, not wanting to look at her, to see in her eyes the disappointment that he was not Fred.

"George, wait!" Angelina shouted, stopping him as he made his way for the door. "You can't just drop this bomb on me and expect me to know what to do with this right away. I need time to think about this. You know I care about you, right?"

But all George could think about was how he wasn't Fred, and never would be. "I get it Angelina," he said, not looking at her. "You're in love with Fred and always have been. I've always known it. I won't interfere again."

"No, George, you don't get it. How can I be in love with someone who doesn't even seem to know what love is, especially when there's someone right in front of me loving me so selflessly? But I want to do right by you, _and _him, miserable cocksucker that he is."

"Angelina, you don't have to do right by me. That's the last thing I ever wanted from you. I've known for a long time that you could never love me, and I've come to accept it. But you're right, I can no longer stand by and defend and protect my brother when he's hurting you. So if you break up with him, I completely support you. But if you want to do it for my sake, don't. I'm happy just knowing that you're happy." With one final touch, he caressed her cheek with his thumb, and then, shyly, reverently, he kissed her lips with the barest of touches. And then he left. And Angelina was left wondering why she couldn't love George. And then she wondered if maybe, just maybe, she could.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long delay in getting the second part up. This writing exercise was just a short two-parter. Hope you enjoyed, and please let me know what you think!


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